California flooding: More storms forecast for weekend as experts warn heavy rain won’t fix drought

If you can stay home right now, you probably should, given the historic rains and flooding taking place across California.

If you need to go out, it’s always a good idea to check road conditions near you.

Caltrans, the state transit agency, has a great map that’s updated live with lane closures, California Highway Patrol incidents, and other hazard incidents.

You can look at the Caltrans QuickMap here.

Emergency services continue to search for missing five-year-old Kyle Doan, who was swept away by raging floodwaters near San Miguel on Monday, when his mother’s car got stuck in a creek.

The search had been called off after five hours due to the treacherous conditions which made it unsafe for first responders to continue their efforts.

It resumed on Tuesday morning during a break in the intense storms.

“The public is strongly cautioned not to conduct self-initiated searches and put themselves in harms way and become a victim requiring resources that would otherwise be used for searching,” the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.

As of Wednesday morning, the boy is yet to be located.

“The search remains our top priority while weather conditions permit. We will update the public with any info regarding this search,” the sheriff’s office said.

Kevin Costner was forced to miss the Golden Globes on Tuesday where he won best actor in a drama TV series, because of the intense flooding in California.

The Hollywood star was set to attend the star-studded Beverly Hills bash to collect the award for the TV series Yellowstone.

In an Instagram post, he said that he and his wife Christine were unable to get to the awards show because of flooding near their home in Santa Barbara.

“I’m so sorry for everyone who might have been tuning in to watch the Golden Globes. Chris and I aren’t going to be able to be there,” he said.

“Yesterday we had to pull the kids out of school in Santa Barbara. This is the second time in five years that the town freeways flooded out, and we found ourselves on the wrong side of town, and we couldn’t get back last night.

“We couldn’t even get back to the house this morning in time with the freeways closed. (There’s) nobody sadder than us that we can’t be there at the Golden Globes.”

Rep Katie Porter has been slammed for announcing her bid for senator in the middle of California’s deadly storms.

The Democrat announced this week that she will join the race for Senator Dianne Feinstein’s seat, saying “especially in times like these, California needs a warrior in the Senate”.

A source close to Republican Rep Adam Schiff – who has also voiced interest in joining the race – slammed the timing of her announcement.

“It’s f***ing crazy that she would announce in the middle of a natural disaster,” the source told the Los Angeles Times.

Rep Ro Khanna, a Democrat who is also mulling joining the Senate race, also made a thinly-veiled dig at Ms Porter: “Right now, California is facing severe storms and floods, and my district is facing historic weather conditions. My focus is on that. In the next few months, I will make a decision.”

The atmospheric river deluging California will re-focus mainly across northern parts of the state on Wednesday, the National Weather Service reported.

There will be more heavy rain and mountain snow on land already water-logged by days of precipitation.

Further east, a few strong to severe storms will be possible in the mid-Mississippi and Ohio valleys.

Monster waves and torrential rains have flooded California causing significant damage to towns across the state, but many surfers have made the most of the adverse situation.

A video captured at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge last week, that is now viral, showed a group of surfers braving the wind and riding the high waves caused by a bomb cyclone, dubbed a “50-year storm” by surfing blog The Inertia.

Several visitors can also be spotted standing near the water filming and cheering them on.

Read the full story here:

Major highways across California were closed after becoming impassable due to flash floods, mudslides and debris flows.

On Wednesday, crews were working to reopen routes as more than 10,000 people who had been evacuated from coastal areas due to the dangerous conditions were allowed to return home.

The search for a five-year-old boy is now entering its third day, after he was swept away by raging floodwaters that continue to batter the state of California.

Kyle Doan was last seen on Monday morning when he and his mother became stranded in their vehicle near San Miguel.

Read more here:

California Governor Gavin Newsom said that the number of fatalities from the storms is likely to increase.

At least 17 people have died after wave after wave of extreme rainfall deluged the state.

A pickup truck driver and a motorcyclist were killed early on Tuesday in the San Joaquin Valley when a tree that had been struck by lightning fell on them, the Associated Press reported. Other deaths were caused by car crashes and lightning strikes.

The United States experienced 18 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in 2022 – the latest battering in consecutive years of wall-to-wall catastrophes.

The absymal tally was noted in a new report by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday, and put 2022 in joint third place with 2011 and 2017 for the greatest number of disasters. Only 2021, with 20 billion-dollar disasters, and 2020, with 22 disasters, topped it.

This year’s disasters, including last month’s massive bomb cyclone, Hurricane Ian and two tornado outbreaks, resulted in the deaths of at least 474 people.